Quotes: Head Coach Chip Kelly

COACH KELLY: I thought Nick played really well. I think specifically when you really watch the tape, the plays he made on third‑and‑long kept drives alive, the throw to Jeff [Maehl], the throw to [DeSean] Jackson. But those are difficult down‑and‑distances to convert, and I think that was really kind of the key, especially early to keep us on the field and keep our offense going. But two big‑time plays, he played really, really well.

I know it's one game. Did you learn some new things about him?

COACH KELLY: No. I mean, I think maybe it just confirmed. I've seen him in practice, seen him getting better and better. It's, again, going out on the field and doing it. That's why I think what happened in the Cowboys game was such a surprise to everybody because that's not what Nick expects out of himself, not what we expect out of him. Just happy for him.

But again, we talked about it during the game, we talked about it after the game. His preparation led him to that, just really spent a lot of time, did his due diligence. We were talking about plays. He's kind of had answers before plays started if this goes to this, this is where I'm going, throws the ball over the top to Riley [Cooper].

And it is, to go back to your question, a small sample size. He played in the Giants game, he played in the Tampa Bay game, he played against the Cowboys. Now this. It's encouraging, I can tell you that.

What's left for you to see? What more does he need to show you?

COACH KELLY: He just needs to continue to play, just like everybody else on this team.

With Nick missing that game a week before, do you think that helped to look back at the mistakes he made?

COACH KELLY: I have no idea. Run with it whatever you want to run with. But I'm not encouraging other guys to get concussions and sit out for a day and then come back because they're going to play well.

How much film study did he do?

COACH KELLY: He didn't do any film study because he was out. He was away way for an entire week. So I don't think the week off helped him do anything.

Looking at the mistakes he made in the Dallas game --

COACH KELLY: We didn't spend much time on it because we had to get ready for our game plan. The first time Nick watched film was that Monday he got cleared. He was out for an entire week. He didn't watch any film. He couldn't be in meetings, couldn't be around those things, because of how they handle concussions.

There wasn't a lot of time spent on the Dallas game. I think he kind of watched, went over the notes with Coach [Bill] Lazor, then we moved on to get ready for the Raiders. We didn't have time to where he spent a lot of time on it just because of the injuries.

Teams seem like they’re trying to take away the run game from you in recent weeks --

COACH KELLY: I don't think that's true. You can run with your question. I think they defend everything. People don't do that. They don't come in and say, Hey, we're going to stop the run, we don't care if they throw the ball over and over again.

I think we do the same exact thing. We want to take away what people do, but you can't just say, Hey, we're going to stop one facet of it and then get burnt in another facet of it. That's not how football coaches operate. I know we don't operate that way. I don't think anybody I've ever been around that coaches football operates that way.

Let's just take away this. You have to defend the whole game, you have to defend the whole field, you have to defend every player. That's part of the deal. So it's usually down‑and‑distance. If it's third‑and‑short you're thinking more run. If it's third‑and‑long, you're thinking more pass, but based on the percentages you get.

But I don't think people are solely focused on taking away any one aspect of anything.

The LeSean McCoy touchdown, did you catch them in the right coverage for what you were running?

COACH KELLY: Yeah, they were in a blitz. No one adjusted with the motion. So I don't know if it should have been a peel blitz or someone coming from the inside.

But we just caught them when they were in a blitz and we got to an empty formation really quickly. Nick recognized it and got the ball out.

When you look at Nick's accuracy yesterday, that's something you've always talked about, except for the Dallas game. Did he seem to take that to another level yesterday?

COACH KELLY: No, I mean, the one to [Zach] Ertz, he was just scrambling. Zach happened to be out, ran a good route. He did throw a nice ball to Riley over the top on Riley's first touchdown. But those are things we've expected out of him; I think Nick expects out of himself.

I feel there were a lot of questions here and people looked at me like I was cross‑eyed when they said Nick Foles couldn't throw the ball deep. I've seen him throw the ball deep. I've seen him be accurate in practice, and now he's done it in a game.

How much of the deep balls is chemistry between two guys, practice reps with him and Cooper?

COACH KELLY: I think it's a combination of all that. He did that with DeSean, too. It wasn't like it was just Riley. I think it's something we work on. It's the first thing we do every day. Coming out we do a curl station, then we could an over‑the‑ball shoulder throw. We're starting to see what work goes on on the practice film, when we're out there training, kind of being transferred over. I think it's the same thing for the defense, the same thing we see our defense do fundamentally in terms of their training transfer over to the game. That's a positive for us.

Is that a direct result of him looking off the safeties, first to the left, scrambling, looking middle, then waiting the last minute to go to Ertz? Is that why the touchdown happened?

COACH KELLY: No. I mean, they dropped Ertz in coverage. Once the quarterback gets flushed like Nick did, then his eyes are up looking for whoever is the open receiver. It wasn't a design play to let's get him flush and try to look somebody off.

I think once he got out of the pocket, Nick does a great job of getting his eyes up. He did the same thing when he hit DeSean on the long third‑and‑long versus zone coverage. He's kind of scanning the field, looking for a place to put the football. I don't think he was trying to look anybody off in that situation.

In Riley's touchdown, he was. He tried to keep the free safety in the middle, threw it, because he knew he had man coverage. So he looked him off to the right and then threw it back over the top to the left.

He'll look off things when we're in timing, when we're in the pocket, when he gets flush, he'll just look at the open receiver, make a positive play.

What did you see from the offensive line overall?

COACH KELLY: I thought they did a really, really good job. For most of the day Nick wasn't pressured very much, so he had an opportunity to set his feet and get the ball out on time. You know, I thought that group up front played really, really well. I think we were pretty clean for the most part of the day in the pocket, and that always helps.

We've said all along that pass offense is a combination of everybody. And I think they contributed greatly to that because I think he was clean in most of his throws.

Have you mapped out who gets the first team reps this week?

COACH KELLY: Nick will tomorrow because I don't know if Mike [Vick] will be ready to go in practice. We'll keep monitoring that situation just like every other situation.

COACH KELLY: I don't know if Peters will go tomorrow, he should be back. Bradley, we'll see as the week goes along. Those are the only two guys that really came up.

In regards to what happened to John Fox and Gary Kubiak this weekend, do you look at it that you have an incredibly stressful job?

COACH KELLY: I don't say, Hey, it could happen to anybody because I understand what goes on because I do it. I also know there's a lot of people that have stressful jobs. There's firemen, policemen, doctors. There's everybody.

I think whether you're a football coach or you're anybody, I think you should take notice of what happened and just make sure that you can be preventive in what goes on. But I don't think it's specific just to football coaches in general. I think there's a lot of people that have stressful jobs out there. And everybody should kind of not think about that, Hey, I got this. I got a job to do, I got to take care of it. You have to have balance that out and take care of yourself.

Do you ever think about it at all?

COACH KELLY: No, I think everybody thinks about it. I think it's really encouraged in this league. When we got here, everybody on our staff got physical, it's a yearly thing. The organization's pretty proactive in terms of that aspect of it. But it is something I think everybody should be aware of.

COACH KELLY: Pat hadn't been out there and Earl has. Just trying to get Pat back involved. We were happy kind of how he responded and where he was.

But, you know, it's a process of bringing him back in. You know, it wasn't, Hey, he's 100% healthy, let's throw him back in the field. A week before all Pat did was run around, he took a million reps, but he took a million reps at scout receiver and a million reps at scout DB. He wasn't really involved in the game plan because we didn't think he was going to be able to go. He could run around without contact.

He started to get more reps and get a little more familiar so you'll start to see him work his way back in. What it does for us, I think it just provides us some depth. At this point in the year you're getting into week 10. You obviously need everybody at the beginning. But we're starting to get a little bit healthier, it helps especially at the safety position that we got Nate [Allen], Earl in, now we got Pat.

Bryce Brown’s game was kind of overshadowed yesterday. What did you see out of him?

COACH KELLY: Yeah, I think Bryce did what we've expected Bryce to do and I think what Bryce expected of himself. Maybe not on the same scale as Nick. But it wasn't a surprise to anybody, I guess, that's been around him. I think he did a really good job of squaring his shoulders up, not really trying to create something that wasn't there. And he's a big, physical guy. I think when we can get him to run up inside the tackles, which is really his strength is, I thought he did a really nice job.

And it's the same thing we just talked about at safety. When you have depth now, which we've felt we had at running back, but you have depth producing at the running back spot, that's really beneficial for us.

Where have you seen Earl Wolff improve?

COACH KELLY: I just think his familiarity and his experience that he's gained. When route combinations happen, it's not the first time he's seen them. He can kind of react to them. Maybe he is not biting the underneath route, getting the ball thrown over the top when he's in a zone. He can disguise a little bit better because he knows where he's supposed to be when the ball is snapped. He can move around, getting a little more familiar with what we're trying to do. You can see him gaining that experience and, with that experience, him gaining his confidence as he goes along.

Do you see the safety position as a rotation going forward?

COACH KELLY: We'll see how it goes and expresses itself during the week in practice. But it's a positive to get Pat back. I think the one thing about Pat is he's always going to fly around. He did it again yesterday. That's the Pat Chung we know. He does it all the time in practice. He's doing it again on the field. He's got a lot of energy to him, a lot of, you know, knowledge of the game because he's got some experience, a lot more experience than some of the other guys just 'cause of how long he's been in the league.

So it's a positive to get him back. We'll see how that rotation goes during the week.

Who are the guys up front that stood out on film?

COACH KELLY: Up front, I thought Fletcher Cox played really, really well. It was good to see Trent [Cole] finally get a sack, but he was flying around all day long. I thought we did a really good job up front of pressuring him. But I don't know if there's anybody faster than him. I would say him and [Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III] RG3 and [49ers quarterback Colin] Kaepernick are probably the three fastest guys.

It was a couple times when he broke contain where if it was anybody else, I think we would have had a sack. Give [Raiders quarterback Terrelle] Pryor credit in terms of the ability to keep plays going. The one long run they had going down their sideline, I think a couple guys initially thought they had angles, but because he's so fast, he kind of turned the corner on us.

I thought Fletch and Trent played really well up front in terms of creating some havoc up there.

In Vick’s case, you said 10 to 14 days.

COACH KELLY: I didn't say that. The doctors said that. I'm not a doctor. Whenever you ask me those questions, I'm relaying what's been told to me.

What are the doctors telling you now about the timeframe on Vick?

COACH KELLY: We didn't talk about a timeframe today so I can't tell you anything on that.

Was there ever a timeframe on Vick?

COACH KELLY: No. We didn't talk about timeframe since then. You know, once it's past 10 to 14 days for me, I'm not listening to the timeframe anymore, so...

So are you thinking 10 to 14 days?

COACH KELLY: I'm not thinking anything. I just told you that. Once we pass 10 to 14 days, which was about two weeks ago, I stopped thinking timeframe.

They tell me when he can go, when he can't go. I can cross my fingers, I can be hopeful, I can be wishful. But when they say he can go, he can go.

What did they tell you?

COACH KELLY: That his leg was sore. He's not going to go tomorrow.

Young quarterbacks in this league don't deal with failure too well. For Nick to go from a bad game to the best game...

COACH KELLY: You've lost me on the first part. I've only seen our guys. I haven't seen a lot of guys in the league not handle failure real well.

What does it say about him?

COACH KELLY: I just think it's what I knew about Nick. I thought that what happened in the Cowboys game, as I said the other day, was an exception, not the rule. That's not the Nick Foles I know. I think he's extremely resilient. I think he's got a toughness to him. Take the film out when we played him. We hit the crap out of that kid every single play. He completed a pass against us left‑handed for 13 yards. [He] had his helmet turned around sideways and got up and took the next snap.

I've always said that, I've always been a big fan of his. I've seen him play, and I've seen him play in critical games. And he always ‑‑ I don't know if it was us, but he always seemed to have great games against us.

You know, really what happened in the Cowboys game was the first time I've ever seen that from him. Let's knock on wood, let's hope it's the last time we ever see it from him. I know from being with him, he's a guy that's a student of the game. He works extremely hard at it, doesn't seem to get rattled.

In that game I don't know what happened. But let's move on and let's hopefully we work off the Tampa game and we work off of this last game as we continue to move forward.

COACH KELLY: Mychal, I thought he did a nice job. I think a couple times he got knocked off just at the last second, the one time he was blitzing him. The guy kind of caught him.

I think the one thing is we really used his athleticism to try to put him in spots to make plays. I think Mychal is one of those guys [that] every single week, he gets better and better. I think he probably had his best game the week before. I think it was a little different challenge this week because of the mobile quarterback.

He's really starting to come along. It's exciting. When you have a rock solid guy, DeMeco [Ryans] is standing right there, and then all of a sudden, now Mychal, his game is starting to elevate, and I think that's a positive as we move forward.

It looked like you tried to do a few different things, in terms of run blocking against the Giants. Is that true and did you continue to do that this past week?

COACH KELLY: I wouldn't say that's true. I think we ran inside zone, outside zone, sweep, some of those other things. So I don't think there was anything drastically from a schematic standpoint.

We've been kind of locked into what we're doing. I think when you get to this point in time, if you're trying to put something in new, brand‑new, from a scheme standpoint, you're not going to get enough reps on a weekly basis to be able to go into a game real confident that that's what you can do.

What's the key to Nick not throwing interceptions but still being aggressive down the field?

COACH KELLY: I think it's pre-snap knowledge, kind of getting an understanding of where they're going. I don't think he's getting surprised by what he's getting. He kind of understands what the presentation is pre-snap. Can he confirm it on his first step post-snap, kind of see where he is.

We've talked as a staff since we got here and with our players, it's our ability to not turn the ball over on the offensive side of the ball. We control that. I think obviously our numbers are down compared to what they were here before. I think that's a big thing.

Turnovers kill you. You got to be able to make sure that we take care of the football. We start the play with the football, we need to end the play with the football. Our defense, the turnovers are starting to come. Whenever you're on the plus side of the turnover category, usually you're going to have a successful day.

I think by and large we've done a decent job of that during the season. The Chiefs game was obviously the one game we were minus-five, obviously lose the game by 10. Besides that, I think we've been pretty good on the offensive side of the ball. But we need to continue to do that.

The Packers game, do you watch it live? Does the complicate the game plan today?

COACH KELLY: I don't think at this time in the season it does because they've already played seven games or eight games. I don't know what they are right now. So we got a body of work that we've been studying all day to go off of.

We'll wait to get the last game entered, but it won't be broken down until tomorrow morning around 5:30 or 6:00 when we finally get it done. We'll try to watch the game as we're game planning here. But I don't see them drastically changing what they do offensively and defensively in week nine as opposed to what they did in the first eight weeks of the season.

I think one time during the preseason you were asked how you would tell Michael Vick that he is not the starter. How can you not tell Nick Foles that he is going to be the guy?

COACH KELLY: I think you're more worried about it than he is, so... That's what I think.

You’ve got a guy making his ninth NFL start like Nick. You get guys who get caught up in the historical significance of the performance they just put on. Is Nick the type of guy that is more level-headed and can put that aside and know exactly what his place is as an NFL quarterback?

COACH KELLY: I think he is. If he needs anything to think about, he should think about what happened in the last couple weeks to him. It can change in a week.

If you spend too much time dwelling on the past then you're probably doomed to repeat it. If you spend too much time patting yourself on the back, you're probably in a bad situation, too.

I think you can look at his short career in the last two or three weeks here to kind of see how quickly it can go from one week to the next week. He went from NFC Player of the Week against Tampa Bay to not playing very well against the Cowboys to now coming back.

He's probably got a life full of lessons in the last three weeks. I don't think that will affect him. That's just not the type of guy he is. I don't see that ever happening to Nick.